Complete Details On Star Trek Movie Blu-Ray and DVD Sets

Over the last few weeks, including yesterday, we have been reporting bits and pieces regarding the home video releases for the JJ Abrams Star Trek movie. And finally today, Paramount has sent out the official press release, with all the details on the sets, including the special features. All the details are below.

Star Trek Coming Home
As noted in our previous articles, there will be three home video releases of the JJ Abrams Star Trek movie on November 17th, 2009, but we now have the pricing details (MSRP):

$375 Million Worldwide Sensation Beams Up to a Single and Two-Disc DVD
and Three-Disc Blu-ray November 17, 2009

HOLLYWOOD, Calif. (July 17, 2009) – This year audiences thrilled at the triumphant voyage of the Starship Enterprise and her young and vibrant crew in movie theaters across the planet — and on November 17, 2009, the world will go where no one has gone before when STAR TREK debuts as a three-disc Blu-ray with digital copy, two-disc DVD with digital copy and a single-disc DVD from Paramount Home Entertainment. Bursting with “spectacular action” (Hollywood Reporter) and “pure filmmaking exhilaration” (Rolling Stone) director J.J. Abrams’ sensational reinvention of the “Star Trek” franchise was hailed by critics and embraced by long-time and new fans alike, earning over $375 million at the worldwide box office. Starring a hot young cast including Chris Pine (Carriers), Zachary Quinto (”Heroes”), Zoe Saldana (Avatar), Karl Urban (The Bourne Supremacy), John Cho (Harold & Kumar Go To White Castle), Anton Yelchin (Terminator Salvation) and Simon Pegg (Shaun of the Dead), the global smash hit also features seasoned actors such as Eric Bana (Munich), Bruce Greenwood (National Treasure: Book of Secrets), Winona Ryder (Girl, Interrupted) and the original Spock himself, Leonard Nimoy.

“I cannot wait for fans of Star Trek to check out the home entertainment release of the film. The behind-the-scenes features on the DVD — and especially the Blu-ray — give a wonderful look at the crazy hard work and incredible fun that went into making this movie,” said J.J. Abrams. “The cast and crew were truly extraordinary to work with — watching these special features, you’ll see why. And for people who didn’t catch Star Trek in the theater, I hope they do now, as Paramount has done an exceptional job with this release; the picture and sound quality are both excellent.”

The STAR TREK DVD and Blu-ray will boast out-of-this-world special features to take viewers even further into the new universe of the rousing space adventure. The two-disc DVD and three-disc Blu-ray include in-depth explorations of the reimagining of the franchise, the phenomenal cast, the spectacularly real action sequences, the powerful score and the captivating aliens, commentary by J.J. Abrams, the writers and producers, a gag reel and a digital copy of the film. Additionally, the discs feature compelling deleted scenes that reveal a side story involving Nero with a first-ever look at Abrams’ version of the infamous warrior Klingons.

The STAR TREK Blu-ray boldly ventures beyond the final frontier with over three hours of sensational bonus footage including branching pods that allow for enhanced exploration, more fascinating features on the starships, planets, props, costumes and sound of STAR TREK, as well as a Starfleet Vessel Simulator and access to the latest NASA news about real-life space exploration via BD-Live.

The two-disc DVD and three-disc Blu-ray will also offer a home entertainment first: groundbreaking augmented reality technology. Using a webcam, a Star Trek visual cue will morph into a 3D holographic tour of the U.S.S. Enterprise on the screen, providing a unique immersive and interactive experience.

DVD:

The STAR TREK two-disc DVD is presented in widescreen enhanced for 16:9 televisions with Dolby Digital English 5.1 Surround, French 5.1 Surround and Spanish 5.1 Surround with English, French and Spanish subtitles. Special features are as follows:

A New Vision — J.J. Abrams’ vision was not only to create a Star Trek that was a bigger, more action-packed spectacle, but also to make the spectacle feel real. Every aspect of production — from unique locations to the use of classic Hollywood camera tricks — was guided by this overall objective.

Gag Reel — Bloopers featuring the entire principal cast.

Disc 2:

Digital Copy

Deleted Scenes with Optional Commentary

Spock Birth

Klingons Take Over Narada

Young Kirk, Johnny and Uncle Frank

Amanda and Sarek Argue After Spock Fights

Prison Interrogation and Breakout

Sarek Gets Amanda

Dorm Room and Kobayashi Maru (original version)

Kirk Apologizes to the Green Girl

Sarek Sees Spock

To Boldly Go — Taking on the world’s most beloved science fiction franchise was no small mission. Director J.J. Abrams, writers Roberto Orci and Alex Kurtzman, producer Damon Lindelof, and executive producer Bryan Burk talk about the many challenges they faced and their strategy for success.

Casting — The producers knew their greatest task was finding the right cast to reprise these epic roles. The cast, for their part, talk about the experience of trying to capture the essence of these mythic characters. The piece concludes with a moving tribute to Leonard Nimoy.

Aliens — Designers Neville Page and Joel Harlow talk about the hurdles they faced creating new alien species, recreating the Romulans and Vulcans, and designing the terrifying creatures on Delta Vega for the new Star Trek.

Score — As a fan of the original series, composer Michael Giacchino embraced the challenge of creating new music for Star Trek while preserving the spirit of Alexander Courage’s celebrated theme.

DVD-Rom:

STAR TREK D-A-C Free Trial Game for XBOX 360

Weblink to the STAR TREK D-A-C Free Trial Game for PC

Weblink to the STAR TREK D-A-C Free Trial Game for PlayStation Network

The STAR TREK single-disc DVD is presented in widescreen enhanced for 16:9 televisions with Dolby Digital English 5.1 Surround, French 5.1 Surround and Spanish 5.1 Surround with English, French and Spanish subtitles. The single-disc DVD includes the commentary, “A New Vision” and the gag reel.

BLU-RAY

The STAR TREK three-disc Blu-ray is presented in 1080p High Definition with English 5.1 Dolby TrueHD, French 5.1 Dolby Digital and Spanish 5.1 Dolby Digital with English, English SDH, French, Spanish and Portuguese subtitles. Special features are as follows:

NASA News — This BD-Live feature gives viewers access to the latest NASA news about real space exploration. Learn about new mission developments and check out featured imagery from around the universe.

Disc 2:

To Boldly Go — See description above.

Branching Pods:

The Shatner Conundrum

Red Shirt Guy

The Green Girl

Trekker Alert!

Casting — See description above.

A New Vision — See description above.

Branching Pods:

Savage Pressure

Starships — Abrams and production designer Scott Chambliss were careful to pay tribute to the design of the original Enterprise, but they also wanted to make it futuristic and cool for a modern audience. This chapter focuses on the unique stories behind the creation of the film’s starships.

Branching Pods:

Warp Explained

Paint Job

Bridge Construction Accelerated

The Captain’s Chair

Button Acting 101

Shuttle Shuffle

Narada Construction Accelerated

Aliens — See description above.

Branching Pods:

The Alien Paradox

Big-Eyed Girl

Big Bro Quinto

Klingons

Drakoulias Anatomy 101

Planets — From the frozen landscape of Delta Vega to the desert plains of Vulcan, Scott Chambliss and the art department had a number of radically different planets to create. Abrams’ desire to shoot on real locations whenever possible led the production team to a number of strange and surprising locations.

Branching Pods:

Extra Business

Confidentiality

Props and Costumes — Property master Russell Bobbitt had the unique challenge of designing props that were both true to the original series and pertinent to today’s technology. Likewise, costume designer Michael Kaplan talks about how he designed costumes that paid homage to what came before yet were relevant and timeless.

Branching Pods:

Klingon Wardrobe

Ben Burtt and the Sounds of Star Trek — When famed sound designer Ben Burtt was hired to create sounds for the first Star Wars film, he took his inspiration from the original “Star Trek” series. Burtt jumped at the opportunity to pay tribute to the sounds that sparked his career with the sounds he created for the new Star Trek.

Street date: November 17, 2009
Runtime: 127 minutes
U.S. Rating: PG-13 for some intense sequences of sci-fi action and violence and brief suggestive content
Canadian Rating: PG for violence

More Star Trek Home Video News To Come
Next week Paramount should be announcing details on the Star Trek Season Two and the Next Generation Films Blu-ray sets, and possibly more. TrekMovie will have all the info as soon as it is available.

International Note
The above information is for the North American release. TrekMovie will try and provide an update for the international releases, as some details may be different.

You know, you are right. I am still using a PS2 for cheap dvds/games, this makes for a great business case to Buy a PS3. JJ if you are reading this, you have to sign a deal with Sony and allow for the PS3 to be bundled with Star Trek blue ray disc.

Tricked-out interactive stuff (like the “Starfleet Vessel Simulator”) is one thing, but I HATE this growing trend of Blu-Ray exclusive features that could have easily been featured on DVD — in this case, a full FIVE interesting-looking featurettes. For those of us (such as myself) without the budget or space to afford sufficiently large televisions, there’s no pressing reason to upgrade to Blu … so they deliberately withhold content in the hopes that THAT gets us to bite. Maybe that’s sound marketing, but it ticks me off. This release will leave a sour taste in my mouth now.

The file size of the extra content maybe too large for the dvd version, the blu ray has more space capacity and you are maybe right that it is indeed a marketing ploy. But there has to be some pull to differentiate the dvd version and blu ray version other than full 1080p.

#5 – seeing as the 3-DVD set and the BluRay edition have the same MSRP, this might be an excellent time to get a BluRay player, even if you don’t have a hi-def TV to take advantage of all the features just yet. There are plenty of players that can be had for well under $200 (they all play standard DVDs just fine BTW) and most come with plenty of outputs, so you should have no problem connecting it to a standard-def TV set for now while being future proof for when you finally do take the hi-def plunge.

I’m glad all the previously rumored extras will still be included. I’m planning on a day one BluRay purchase; though November 17 seems so far away right now…

Unfortunately, until they have a Blu-ray player that will also play DivX and PAL and is region-free, I’m probably sticking with my $40 Panasonic, cos half my discs are Region 2 and DivX, and alas, mortgage comes before Blu-ray player…

Well, we’re supposed to believe, that the advancements Starfleet made came from a scan of Narada made by the Kelvin while under attack. On the other hand the Klingon take over the Narada as the deleted scene shows. So it’s save to say they had possesion of the ship at least for a few hours since Nero is in prison. The data detailed scans they could have made there would be enough – no matter if it’s 25 years or just a day.

I can’t wait to see the Ben Burtt stuff. His WALL E feature was really interesting. I hope he goes into some of the background of the original sound effects from the show, and how he used them as a base for the new ones.

I noticed for the hand phasers he sort of used the Naboo pistol sound effect.

Most of the features on the 2-disc DVD are referred to in the Blu-Ray list with the addendum “see description above.” However, “Deleted Scenes” is not mentioned. Are we to assume this is an oversight and the Deleted Scenes are indeed on the Blu-Ray, or are they not included on the Blu-Ray set?

J.J. Abrams Commentary- This sequence got deleted because we felt that Kirk apologizing for any reason what so ever would have made him out to be an interesting and potentially likable character. One of the things Star Wars has taught me, which I’m a huge Star Wars fan by the way, is that you don’t have to have your main character have any sense of compassion or respect towards others in order for your movie to be successful. All that was needed for Kirk’s character was that he plays by his own rules and, well, he’s Kirk!

I regret that someone told me that he has had a bootleg dvd since the day after the theatrical release of Star Trek. He never bothered to see the movie at the theatre. I have seen it 4 times at the theatre myself. I hate to see bootlegs take away from our beloved franchise, but they exist.

#6 – Given the quantity of jam-packed DVDs out there that look just fine in SD, I’d have a very hard time buying a “space issue” argument. Not to mention the fact that the company has another, self-serving motive that’s not hard to believe at all…

#11 – For the sake of people who’ve made the switch, I’m grateful that the SRP is so reasonable for Blu-Ray discs — but right now, dropping $200 on a player isn’t in my budget. Not for bonus features. I understand that part of the argument is that I’ll probably have Blu-Ray and a huge TV eventually, so why not invest in the player now and not have to re-buy my favorite films later. But even if that’s valid, I still disapprove of the TACTICS being used to entice me to that choice — that is, DELIBERATELY creating a product that’s not as good as it could be, in the hopes that I’ll dig into my wallet and trade up. It’s the same philosophy behind holding back special features in anticipation of a double- or triple-dip … the way Disney and Lucas hold stuff back for the specific purpose of making you re-buy it later. Again, I understand that on one level that’s arguably good marketing. I still don’t like it.

Anyway, rant over. I’m definitely buying the film one way or another, so they’ve got my money.